Meet Me at the PokeStop
by R.L.Keeper
Summary: Ten Australians, from all over the Island Continent, are sent a new phone as part of contest's prize pool. These new phones strangely enough, come with the Pokemon Go App already installed and has some strange side effects when playing said game...
1. Delivery

**Meet Me at the PokeStop**

 **Chapter One**

 _Delivery_

* * *

Ten of the devices, only ten, on each continent around the Earth would be sent out, hopefully that would be enough.

So out they went, all sixty devices, across the planet. Naturally under a guise of contest prizes, if only to stay under the radar.

Ten of these devices were boxed up and sent to ten different Australians, this is their story.

It should be noted that Claire Shepard was not the first to recieve her parcle, indeed, others recieved theirs days before hers even arrived in Tasmania, she is, however, the first domino, in a long line, to fall.

* * *

 _Dear Miss Shepard,_

 _Congradulations! We are pleased to inform you that you are one of ten winners of our Celabratory 25 Years of Service Lucky Draw. Within you will find your prize, we hope you enjoy using your new device as much as we enjoyed designing it!_

 _Our only request is that you do not attempt to give it away or sell it before trying it for at least one month._

 _Thank you,_

 _I. Woodly_

 _Director_

 _Oak Research Institute_

* * *

Claire stared down at the strangely official looking letter in her hand with bewilderment, the young woman was sure she hadn't entered any contests lately. She also didn't think she'd ever even heard of the ' _Oak Reseach Insitute_ ', so how had they gotten her details? Suspicious now, Claire's bright green eyes turned to the small box that had come in the parcle with the letter. They'd said 'device', so maybe it was an ipod or something? Gingerly, she pulled the lid off, mouth popping open in surprise, it seemed that the device, was in fact, a brand new phone.

It was gold, slim and around the same size as her current Samsung phone, though the brand was, naturally, Oak, though the 'O' looked a little more like a stylised Pokeball than the letter in question. Which was weird. Taking it out of the box, Claire found not only the expected set of earbuds, but a sim-card pack for, the same company who'd sent her the phone. Even weirder.

"Hey, honey, what was in that parcle you got?" Claire's father, Daniel, called from the kitchen. Glancing up at the doorway, and then back again at the phone starter pack in her hand Claire smiled and stood, taking everything with her into the kitchen to talk to her dad.

"This," she told him as she handed him the letter and placed the phone and it's packaging onto the bench between them. Daniel's eyebrow raised at the sight of the shiny new phone his daughter had recieved, but he took the offered letter before commenting. Taking a bite out of his packed to the hilt salad roll as his eyes skimmed the short letter.

"Oak Research Institute?" he asked with a frown. Claire shrugged at him, she had nothing.

"Never heard of it," she finally sighed. Leaning against the counter she eyed the golden phone that, if she was truthful Claire had been considering upgrading her current phone anyway, so this was a lucky break. If this was legit, and that was a big if.

"Me either, you didn't enter the contest I take?" Daniel, as usual, talking around the massive bite of food in his mouth.

"Yup," Claire reached over and nicked the other half of his roll off his plate before he could stop her.

"Oi!" Daniel glared at his daughter as she took her ownership bite of the packed roll. "Brat," he grumbled at her as he took a bite of his own half of roll.

"Pretty sure we established that some time ago, old man," Claire reminded him with a grin. She nodded at the phone, "any idea if it's legit?" she asked. Daniel frowned down at it and shrugged.

"Look up the place, see what people are saying," he suggested. A tilt of a head later and another bite of the stolen roll and Claire had gathered the phone, starter pack and letter to take up to her attic room, where she'd left her actual phone when she'd gone downstairs to open her parcel.

* * *

It turned out, the whole thing was actually legit. A few people all over the world had received the same 'Oak Phone' as her and they actually worked. They only worked with the sim-card, apparently, but everyone who had one was raving about the amazing coverage, as well as the fact that they'd been informed by email after setting up the phone, that they would have a year of service free of charge. A lot of people were dubious, but a couple of the recipients were lawyers and had gone through the contracts they'd been given and had found nothing about any hidden bills later on either.

When Claire had exhausted everything she could think of to search for, including the Institute itself, which was also very much legit as far as she could tell, she decided to set up her new free phone. Because, hey, free phone.

So after installing the provided sim and starting up the phone Claire was treated to the Insitute's logo: O.R.I in front of the symbol of a pale green oak tree. And then she was in, the OS was sleek, easy to use but, honestly, pretty standard for smart phones.

After setting up her user profile and agreeing to the service contract, which wasn't quite as standard as the rest of the phone, she started having a poke around at the standard set of apps she'd been given.

Everything was mostly normal, the thing that raised her eyebrow, however, was the so-far still in beta (as far as she knew) Pokemon Go app. Tapping on it curiously a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth as it started up.

The moment the in game proffesor appeared she squeeled with joy like no self-respecting twenty one year old should, and grabbed her favourite N7 hoodie and yanked on her sneakers before thumping down the stairs excitedly, phone in hand. She was going pokemon hunting.

Once making it outside Claire stared down at her phone she tapped through the proffessors introduction and the avatar maker, which was a little limiting, and then there they were, Chamander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle. She could only pick one. Smiling to herself, Clair chose. Tapping on the orange baby dragon with a grin. That grin only widened when she saw the AR mode. She threw the ball, staring at her phone as she stood in the middle of the empty street. Best day ever. She was certain.

Seeing her little Chamander, with it's 12CP value made her smile turn soft, her first pokemon.

She gave her name to the proffessor and smiled to herself, and then her whole world shifted with a single utterance.

"Char-Charmander!"

* * *

 **AN: I have no idea if this has already been done yet, but I felt the need to, because Pokemon Go is awesome, or it would be if they could get it working consistantly lol**

 **I have no idea how often I'll update, but I have a number of characters planned, including some villans, and a basic plot. So here we are.**

 **Hope you're all enjoying Pokemon Go, and enjoy the first chapter of Meet Me at the PokeStop!**

 **RLK**


	2. The Beginning

**Meet Me at the PokeStop**

 **Chapter Two**

 _The Beginning_

* * *

Claire stared down at the little creature before her, mouth open and green eyes wide in disbelief. Charmander, her new Charmander, the one she'd just caught, on her phone, was standing in front of her with a pokeball held lightly between it's tiny little digits. It's teal eyes sparkled in the late morning sun as it smiled up at her.

Barely able to wrap her brain around the fact that she was staring down at the real life version of an actual pokemon, Claire edged forward carefully, kneeling down before the Charmander.

It's orange skin wasn't scaled, but smooth and slightly pebbled; and the tips of it's little digits were teeny barely developed claws. Glancing behind it Claire eyed the small fire at the end of it's tail, feeling the heat it generated from where she knelt.

"Char-Char!" the Pokeball was offered to her happily. Looking from the offered ball, to the happy creature offering it Claire and with a slowly growing smile, she took it gently.

"Nice to meet you too, Charmander," Claire said with wonder in her tone.

The moment was broken by a car horn blaring a street or two over, making both Claire and her new friend jump in surprise. Now free from her moment of wonder Claire realised she needed to get the Charmander out of sight until she could figure out what the hell was going on. Which meant taking it back to her house and hiding a little creature with a constant fire hazard at the end of it's tail from her father. Fun times.

Looking around Claire decided it was lucky her father had chosen a house on a side street of North Hobart, rather than a regularly used one, because there wasn't a single person in sight. Turning back to the Charmander, Claire smiled at it and then swiftly picked it up after stuffing both her phone and the offered pokeball in her hoodie's pockets, needless to say the young woman was a little surprised how heavy the Charmander truly was. Swearing a little under her breath as she struggled to handle the creature without scoring herself some serious burns.

"Charmander?" it asked worried.

"It's okay, just need to get you back to my place, okay?" she told it in what she hoped was at least a mildly reassuring tone. Thankfully it seemed to understand and snuggled into her a little making Claire laugh a little.

The short walk back to her front gate was uneventful and she'd almost made it to the door when she heard the sound on a car traveling down her street. Panicking slightly, Claire hurried inside, juggling the Chamander while trying to open the front door wasn't fun, nor was the rush of adrenalin she had to endure for her efforts.

"Honey?" David called. He had moved to the living room by the sound of it, both good and bad, the stairs to her attic room were right next to the entrance to the living room.

"Yeah, dad?" she called. Trying desperately to sound normal and not like she was in the middle of the weirdest moment of her life to date.

"What's going on? You came storming downstairs a minute ago without a word, and then shot out the door," Claire could hear the tv going in the background, thought the sound was turned down. Apparently David was enjoying a rare day off by relaxing on the couch, watching daytime television.

"Uh, yeah, Playing Pokemon Go, outside game, on my new phone," she explained haultingly. As she talked Claire edged toward the staircase, hoping to at least get Charmander up a few of them and out of sight before David poked his head through the doorway.

"Pokemon, huh? That's that Pikachu game, right?" David asked vaguely. Claire took the last few quick steps to the stairs and transfered Charmander as high up the stairs without actually climbing any herself. Just in time too, as David had shifted himself off the couch to talk to her.

"Uh, yeah, yup, it's the Pikachu game," Claire confirmed awkwardly as she leaned against the doorframe. It was all she could do as the light from Charmander's tail would give her away if her father got too close.

"Huh, and how is it outside now?" David asked as he leaned against the back of their couch, arms folded. He eyed his very suspiciously acting daughter.

"Oh, it's on phones now, uses GPS locations and stuff, lotsa walking," Claire explained with an awkward wave of her hand.

"Huh, weird, good, I mean, might get you out of the damn house more, but still, weird," David frowned at her for a moment as though trying to read her mind. Of course, a mind reader David wasn't, so he shrugged at her and waved her off, heading back to his day time television. "Just stay out of trouble, for my heart, you know?" he asked as he sat back down on the couch. Claire rolled her eyes at him.

"Right, because I have a habit of getting into trouble," she answered sarcastically. With her father's laughter ringing in her ears, Claire turned back to the staircase and Charmander. "Come on, little guy, let's get you up these stairs," she murmured to her new companion. Charmander, despite being larger than she'd expected, did not have the nessisary leg length to be able to actually walk up the stairs himself, so Claire had to half carry the little wannabe dragon, being very careful not to get burned by it's tail the whole way up.

Once at the top Claire settled the Charmander on a chair, thankfully it seemed the little guy seemed to be understanding her worry about it's tail fire as he held it in his arms away from everything. Giving him a greatful, but apologetic smile Clair sat on her computer chair with a sigh. It didn't seem real, but there he was, her own, very, very alive and real Charmander.

"Charr..." was the soft, almost morose reminder that she was making a terrible first impression as a Trainer. Running a hand over her face, Claire rolled her chair over to the little guy and put a hand on his head.

"It's okay, and I'm sorry, I didn't even introduce myself," she started quietly. "I was, I was just a little surprised, I guess, pokemon aren't a-well, you guys are usually on the screen, not, you know, here," it was awkward. Explaining that until ten minutes ago, she'd believed Pokemon were just fictional beings. She couldn't exactly say that of course, probably bad taste, which is why it was awkward. "Anyway, um, I'm Claire- Claire Shepard, nice to meet you Charmander," she smiled at him. "I'm sure we're going to be good friends, just you know, maybe try to stay out of my dad's sight for now?" Charmander beamed at her.

"Char-Char!" he said enthusiastically as he launched himself at her. Claire laughed and hugged her new friend, her mind was still reeling, of course, but maybe this was the start of something awesome. She could research later, right now, she just wanted to get to know her new friend.

* * *

"Perfect," said a satisfied voice as she stared down at her new companion. The female Nidoran stared up at her, pokeball sitting on the ground next to it's feet. A slightly off-coloured Charmander stood beside her, a silent and loyal guardian. "And to think," the young woman said as she reached down to pick up the pokeball. Her fingers grazed the side of the Nidoran's face gently, "the game has only just begun,"

* * *

 **AN: Okay, so, second chapter. YAY! Claire and Chamander! I'm still deciding if Claire will be a Trainer who nicknames her pokemon or not. If she did, I have no idea what she would call him. If you guys have any idea's let me know, if I like it I'll be sure to give you a mention!**

 **And oooooh, who was that at the end, with the female Nidoran? and the 'off-coloured' Charmander? Well, I DO know what she'll nick name HER pokemon, which is annoying. Handy though, at least I know what NOT to call everyone elses lol**

 **Okay, Ima go now~**

 **Thanks for the two reviews you guys! They made me smile!**

 **RLK**


	3. Reaching Out

**Meet Me at the PokeStop**

 **Chapter Three**

 _Reaching Out_

* * *

Sitting at her computer trying to figure out what the hell was going on with an, apparently fourteen kilogram, she'd nicked the bathroom scales to check, Charmander on her lap. It was a surreal feeling. Thankfully Charmander understood about the dangers his tail presented and was holding it to himself again, though this time he was much more cheerful. Claire had been debating on giving him a nickname, she usually did in the games, after all. Though she had no idea what to call him.

Glancing down to the top of his head while he was watching her mouse dance about the computer screen before them, Claire smiled, every now and then he'd go to reach for the mouse, wanting to use it himself. Whether it was curiosity, or that he knew something she didn't, Claire wasn't sure. She did know that it was kind of adorable.

She was currently searching through the same website on which she'd found testimonials about the phone, hoping to find clues on what was going on and if anyone else had had the same experiences. She hadn't been lucky thus far.

Scrolling down the forum topic with a frown on her face, Claire almost missed it, a post from two days ago, asking if anyone had noticed anything 'weird' about the phones. Staring at the post, and then looking more carefully through the ones after Claire found that the posters who had been more regular earlier in the thread, had not posted again until the subject had changed.

Returning to that one post, Claire contemplated the username, _ZeeFairMan_ , before clicking on it. His profile was sparse, and he too was apparently a new member. Poor guy probably hadn't had a straight answer from anyone and if he was in the same boat she was, well, who knew how freaked out he was. Probably about as freaked out as she was.

"What do you think little man? Should we message him?" she asked. Claire tilted her head a little so she could look Charmander in the eye as he looked up at her. The nod was so obvious and deliberate, and his little face so serious, Claire couldn't help it, she had to. "Copy that, Joker," she grinned down at him. He stared at her for a moment before grinning back at her.

"Char-Charmander!" he exclaimed happily. Well, she supposed, that answered that question.

"Alright, then," Claire gave Joker a small squeeze and pulled out her keyboard drawer. Then after considering her choices, dove right in, typing a short messsage out to _ZeeFairMan_.

* * *

 _Hi **ZeeFairMan** ,_

 _I'm **TheShepard** , I saw your post asking about any weirdness on the 'Oak Phones', and wondered what kind of weirdness you were refering to? I also noticed no-one seemed to answer you publically. I hope someone else has contacted you and the others didn't leave you hanging. Personally, I've got a brand of weirdness going on myself, I don't suppose your phone came with Pokemon Go, did it?_

 ** _TheShepard_**

* * *

Frowning at the message, Claire tilted her head as her mouse hovered over the 'send' button, contemplating whether or not she'd said too much or not enough. She took her hand off the mouse for a second, to scrach her itchy ear and Joker leaned forward and pressed 'send' for her. "Hey! Joker!" she scolded halfheartedly. The Charmander just grinned toothily up at her as he settled back into her lap contently.

With nothing else to do for the moment, it occoured to Claire that she'd left Pokemon Go running on her phone after Joker had appeared. Pulling it, and Joker's pokeball, out of her hoodie pocket, Claire raised her brow at the words on the screen.

 **Hold filled ball up to screen to store**

Claire looked from the ball she'd placed on her desk, to Joker and then back to her phone. "Don't worry, buddy, you're not going anywhere any time soon," she assured him with another squeeze. After hearing this Joker visibly relaxed and watched as Claire dismissed the 'Storage' screen. After that, Claire was congradulated for her first pokemon capture by the proffesor and encouraged to get out there and catch more. Claire wasn't sure she was up to more pokemon appearing in front of her just yet, she was still adjusting to Joker being real. It did make her wonder about other game franchises that she'd wished were real in the past, Pokemon just being one in a long list. With a snort, Claire dismissed that line of thought, she wasn't sure she would be able to handle knowing if other fictional entities were real too.

Pokemon Go now wanted her to catch other nearby pokemon, there was a Pidgey and a Rattata in the area from the siluettes. Nothing massively awesome, so she moved to the menus to see what else the app oftered. The in app purcheses were pretty standard, and Claire wasn't sure how much she'd use them, but the option was there. She moved on to the bag menu, just to see what she had. She had heaps of pokeballs, a couple of incense, as well as an egg incubator. Well, _that_ would be an interesting experience.

Exiting the game for now, Claire dropped her phone next to Joker's pokeball and considered it for a moment before picking it up. She eyed it over, contemplating. Shifting the way she held the red and white ball and pursing her lips, pressed the white circular button. It shrank. Claire stared at the now much smaller ball resting in the palm of her hand. Her inner pokemon fan was shreeking with glee, but Claire managed to keep most of it inside, only a small 'eep' escaped.

"Char?" Joker was looking at her in confusion. Claire shook her head with a grin and put the shrunken pokeball back in her hoodie.

"Sorry, but that was kinda awesome," she told him.

A blip from her computer brough both of their attentions back to the present, it seemed _ZeeFairMan_ had replied.

* * *

 _Hey **TheShepard** (nice name btw)_

 _Yeah, no-one actually replied to my question at all, which was weird, thanks for the response. Uh, yeah, the Pokemon Go app on my 'Oak Phone' is very...weird. Not sure what else to say. How weird, is your weirdness?_

 _Z_

* * *

Claire stared at the message for a moment, trying to figure out what she could say, after all, she didn't want to sound like a crazy person. Which was probably his dilema too. Then a thought occoured to her and she opened her webcam. "Smile Joker, it's our first photo as partners!" she declared as she hugged her new friend.

Once the photo was taken Claire added it to a new message to _ZeeFairMan_.

* * *

 _Hey Z_

 _Thanks lol_

 _Okay so, I made a new friend today, this is Joker, my new Charmander._

 _What'd you pick?_

 _Shep_

* * *

 **AN: Okay, chapter three! Woop! Adding new characters~**

 **I like Joker the Charmander, he's a little dude. Needed another ME ref, Claire wouldn't not.**

 **Hope you guys are enjoying these~**

 **Laters~**

 **RLK**


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